TV REVIEW: SRK's Ghar Ki Baat Hai

With Shah Rukh Khan and Aziz Mirza in the helm of affairs, it indeed looks like Ghar Ki Baat Hai. Well, we are talking about the new show on NDTV Imagine Ghar Ki Baat Hai (at 9.30 pm, Friday-Sunday), co-produced by Mirza, who’s a part of SRK’s Red Chillies Entertainment.

After his stint as a host in Kaun Banega Crorepati-3 and Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain, Shah Rukh has now decided to produce a show with an intension to ‘add cinematic value on television’.

SRK’s association with Mirza dates back to Circus days, a popular show with Shah Rukh in the lead. It aired on Doodarshan almost 20 years ago. Since then the duo has made many films together including Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Yes Boss and Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.

Coming back to Ghar Ki Baat Hai, it’s a light-hearted show sprinkled with little bit of drama and a pinch of humor, directed by actor-filmmaker Anant Mahadevan.

The show sees Sumeet Raghavan of Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai fame as Rajdeep, his wife Juhi Babbar as Radhika and Swapnil Joshi (of Shri Krishna and Tu Tu Main Main fame) as Sumeet’s brother-in-law Kakku. The story revolves around Rajdeep’s family and the situations they face in their day-to-day lives.

The peripheral cast includes Jayati Bhatia and Deven Munjal and Ali Asgar. Sounds familiar? No points for guessing, as SRK himself admits, Ghar Ki Baat Hai is his tribute to Doordarshan’s popular show Yeh jo Hai Zindagi, a big crowd puller in 1984-1985.

Though SRK claims it’s not a remake, the first episode seemed to be an out-and-out rip-off, where the husband pretends to forget their wedding anniversary and the wife files a divorce case on her brother’s provocation. We can’t help recall (at least those who have seen Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi) Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat and Rakesh Bedi coming alive on screen once again, fighting over a bowl of gulab jamun. Well, here it’s gajar ka halwa, if we can call that being original…

Jokes apart, Ghar Ki Baat Hai has far too many similarities with Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, the hit comedy that marked the debut of actor Satish Shah, who soon became a household name with his different avatar in every episode. Here, Ali Asgar as the lawyer, a watchman or a cook (as we get to see in the promos) looks convincing.

In the second episode (as we gather from the precap), we find Satish Shah, oops! Ali Asgar as the salesman trying to pacify Rajdeep and Radhika fight over a new couch. This one comes across as a frame-to-frame copy of one of the episodes in Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi. Being inspired is fine, but where is the difference we wonder.

Sumit Raghavan and Swapnil Joshi are good as usual. Juhi Babbar – daughter of Raj Babbar and a prominent theatre artiste – who debuts on TV with this one, also seems to be at ease facing the camera after the debacle of her film Kash Aap Hamare Hote in 2003.

However, if the forthcoming episodes turn out to be half as good as Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, then SRK is sure to hit the jackpot by giving a respite from the regular saas-bahu sob stories.

Surprise, surprise! if sources are to be believed the future episodes may also have special guests like Juhi Chawla, Shreyas Talpade and who knows SRK himself may just pop up one day.

[Via http://reelstories.wordpress.com]

Steve Mannion Interview

Now up at Broken Frontier is my interview with Steve Mannion, from Asylum Press’ Fearless Dawn series, for which words like “cheesecake,” “romp” and “madcap” would be suitable descriptions. He’s a great artist too.

His The Bomb TPB is out now and the Fearless Dawn mini-series has just begun. If you like Tank Girl-like heroines fighting Nazis with tongue-in-cheek action and humour, then it’s an enjoyable romp.

[Via http://comicbookjesus.com]

Politico: Gary Johnson emerges as the next Ron Paul

Jonathan Martin at Politico published an excellent profile piece on former Republican Governor of New Mexico and potential 2012 candidate Gary Johnson:

Former New Mexico Republican Gov. Gary Johnson is a teetotaling triathlete who looks the part of the laid-back Mountain West politician.

But don’t let the jeans and black mock turtleneck he’s sporting on his new website fool you: Johnson is starting to sound like a mad-as-hell populist with an eye cast on 2012 and the building fury aimed at Washington.

 “I’m finding myself really angry over spending and the deficit,” he said in an interview with POLITICO this week. “I’m finding myself really angry over what’s happening in the Middle East, the decision to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. I’m angry about cap and trade. And I’ve been on record for a long time on the failed war on drugs.”

 Is that enough to design a presidential campaign around? It might be, at a time of tea parties, rage at bailouts, job loss and general voter discontent. And there is plainly an opportunity for some politician to harness the anti-establishment, populist grass-roots fervor that is right leaning but untethered to any party at the moment.

 It’s what Ron Paul tried to do in last year’s presidential campaign, but Johnson may better positioned to ride the populist wave than the longtime Texas GOP congressman. For one thing, the anti-establishment energy was not at the fever pitch then that it’s nearing now. And, unlike the unlikely Paul, a 73-year-old who got interested in elected politics when Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard in 1971, Johnson is telegenic, is media savvy and, equally important, has twice been easily elected to statewide office.

 A libertarian-leaning Republican, Johnson this month launched “Our America,” a group that aims to draw attention to the principles of limited government at home and noninterventionism abroad.

 But as the subtitle on the website indicates, “The Gary Johnson Initiative” is also designed to elevate the profile of the ascetic and unconventional former governor, who is known nationally — if at all — for his support of legalizing drugs.

 Johnson is doing little to knock down the idea that he may be looking toward a 2012 presidential run.

Read the rest of the article at Politico.com >

[Via http://garyjohnson2012.wordpress.com]

william ellwood

william ellwood

how would you describe what you do? I write fiction. Lots of really short fiction (sub 1000 words) although I’m slowly moving into writing longer works. Also this year I’ve started writing comic scripts. I also sit around on my arse colliding ideas together to see what happens. The results of this activity tends to explode out in IRC where I am prone to ranting at other writers and artists. what are you currently working on? I’m working on a short story as a Christmas present for a friend’s brother at the moment. I’ve just finished putting together a print on demand book so I’m starting to move into marketing that. Which while this isn’t the fun part of writing; it is part of being an independent writer sadly. Okay not sadly. It’s rather fun when I get off my backside and do it. I am also doing some world building for a comic book and novella to come out in the new year. what has had the greatest influence on your work? At the moment, because this is always liable to change, my biggest influences are probably a combination of music and a collection of authors who I can’t quite pin down specific names of the entire set. Warren Ellis is, for sure, an influence from his comics and the print on demand book he published recently kicked me back into action over my POD book.

William Gibson is a formative influence on my writing in both style and approach. Probably my favorite video on the internet is a reading of Spook Country by him on Fora TV where he then goes onto answer questions. He’s basically the biggest influence.

Cory Doctorow even though I’m not a major fan of his fiction is an influence in terms of online presence and relentless enthusiasm.

Warren Ellis also does this but in terms of getting into the business of writing for a living it is probably Cory Doctorow whose career, if I go onto to make a full time living out of writing, mine will probably model trajectory wise.

what is the greatest misconception about you or your work? I’m not really self aware enough of myself or my work as it is perceived by people at large to answer this probably. This might work to my advantage. It might not. what do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in? The main strengths of writing fiction, especially short fiction, is that it is a medium about ideas and character. With a high turnover of both which means I’m forced to keep trying out new ideas and techniques to keep things novel.

Those are also weaknesses. If I was writing for television or longer form fiction there’d be less focus on coming up with characters and new ideas. More of a focus on expanding with what already exists and eventually creating a deeper fictional reality.

The other major weakness is that it’s hard to get people to read what I’ve written because everyone who can read and write has pretty much the same level of ability as me to start with. The only way I can get around this is to write better and more interesting material that everyone else. Up my signal to their noise ratio, or something like that.

how has technology impacted upon the work you do? It hasn’t impacted me personally since I was born in 86; so I’ve always had computers and the Internet, at least in the period where I’ve been writing. My normal thought process if I don’t know something has always been to look it up online. But generally I don’t think that technology has changed writing much. It has speeded it up. Finding out information no longer, sadly, means going to the library to find a book. It means using a search engine which is quicker. I’m in contact with about thirty other artists and writers daily via the Internet. But for the last 100 years I could have been in touch with them via the postal system. What I publish on blogs I could have been printing and photocopying into zines just twenty or thirty years ago.

The impact generally has been in speed. Writing is still about having ideas and writing them down one word after another.

what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on? Just fucking do it. Seriously there’s no excuses. If you want to write you’ve got to write. And you’ve got to read. And you’ve got to spend inordinate amounts of time thinking about writing as well. You’ve just got to do it.

But you’ve also got to finish what you start. A lot of half finished novels may in terms of words written be higher than a lot of finished short stories of flash fictions but the learning experience from finishing those stories will be higher.

where can we find you online? Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fragmad

Everything: http://www.will-ellwood.com

Captain Space Bastard and Other Stories: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=25119074

what are you reading at the moment? Currently I’m reading Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, because somehow I’ve gotten through life without reading it, and two short story collections. The first is Ian Rankin’s “A Good Hanging and Other Stories” and the second is a reread of “Burning Chrome” by William Gibson.

More interesting is what I’m planning to read next because that’s going to colour heavily what I think about going into the start of 2010.
On my bedside cabinet I’ve got a copy of the Maltese Falcon lined up to read and I’ve got the urge to read Spook Country which I still haven’t read yet. In the next week I’ll be getting a book filled with essays about Science Fiction, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, a book on Japanese aesthetics and a book entitled Militant Modernism.

In quiet moments when I just have a few minutes I’m reading Dodgem Logic and the rulebook for a role-playing game called HeroQuest.

what are you listening to at the moment? Mostly I’m listening to the Royksopp and Daft Punk CDs I bought at the weekend. But I’m really enjoying all of the music put out by the netlabel http://www.blacklanternmusic.com/ so far. anything else we should know? My blood is mostly coffee.

[Via http://intoviews.wordpress.com]

An Ideal Man!

 I was reading the latest translated interviews in an Arashi community and read Nino’s solo interview in a certain magazine. I realized, just as I usually do, that Nino has really deep thoughts which are very touching and true most of the time. And I say that I love Nino’s interviews. They seem to be so pure and sincere. And now I’m really starting to notice that his interviews are very loved by Arashi members and we all find them philosophical and interesting of Nino. I just love Nino. ^-^

Here are bits from the magazine translation. The green indicates the interviewer.

• From Ninomiya Kazunari, various expressions can be seen peeking out. He has received high praise as an actor, but even in such a place, glimpses of it shows up. With those acting skills, he has also just received the Individual Galaxy award.“It’s something to be grateful for. It’s just, I also thought, “What’s with that?” It’s like, receiving a prize does not mean you’re great.”It’s exactly because of his cool-headed way of saying that, that his present “greatness” exists. He does not get high spirited at glory. He is not shaken. Even regarding the tremendous popularity of Arashi, he has the same point of view.
• “If we’re talking about it ultimately, with work or anything, I think of myself as the person who created the present situation I am in right now. Of course, in this world, there are cases like in which you apply to enter a company that you wish to, but that’s not like that. However, because it’s the path that you have chosen for yourself, won’t you have fun in your own way? Even I myself, even if I’m busy, I think I’m happy just to be able to work.”
• I want to live by accepting my partner’s feelings
  No matter what, it changes based on how he wants to accepts it. That’s why, he values having positive feelings.
  “For example, even when you’re complaining, if the basis for it is filled with positive feelings of wanting to advance forward, then it won’t be a complaint, and the person who is listening to it won’t hate it as well. In actuality, I think that I myself too, became stronger after being able to be grasp various things in an affirmative way. Even things that I don’t like, the things that are far away from me, I accept them honestly. Not accepting them with criticism, but to accept them affirmatively, my own possibilities are widened, and I think it is also connected to self-confidence.”
• It’s not the form, but saying thank you from the heart that is important
  “What I’ve thought along the way after coming in contact with so many different people during work is, manners are important. Even though I say that, it doesn’t mean things like speaking in keigo (formal language) to seniors. Because words with no heart in them have no meaning in them. I want to be someone who always say “thank you” from the bottom of my heart.”
• For the sake of myself, to not compare myself with others, and to not be swept away
  “I think the fact that this group called Arashi has stayed unchanged for all this time is because we don’t compare with anyone. We have never been subservient towards great people that we see, and on the other hand, we haven’t been swept away in that direction as well. Even as an individual, I think, isn’t it the best to just walk the path that you believe in?”

Nino might be a brat to many Arashi fans, but, unlike them, I see the more sincere and deep thinker Nino. I know him more in his inner sentimental yet objective side. In that interview I just read, you can see Nino as a very humble, hardworking, and optimistic person. Even in dark and lonely times he finds ways to feel better and enjoy all that he is given. He doesn’t complain but see the good ideas of others too. And, according to him, all the awards he received and his popularity, doesn’t change or shake him. He’s still the happy Nino who finds joy in his work and does his best in everything to reach success.

Pardon me for a little fangirling at this moment, but I really think that Nino can be an ideal guy for me. He’s my opposite, and rather than discouraging me it actually made me think that, ah, I would like someone as deep, sincere, humble, hardworking, optimistic, witty, and enthusiastic as Nino (and yeah, add the childish traits of him). I can’t really put every detail in words, but I can visualize it in my mind.

Ah… I really find Nino’s character/personality interesting. He’s not the perfect guy, but his imperfections and traits are really fascinating. I wonder if I could find someone like Nino. LOL. I want Nino to teach me a lot of things!

Not just Nino, but all the members of Arashi I really like. They are friends and brothers at the same time. They don’t compete with any other group but their own selves by improving what they can and working hard. These are just some of the things I like about Arashi.

I didn’t go to Simbang Gabi because I’ll be studying something. But I will if I can! I hope to celebrate a wonderful Christmas happy and in peace with everyone. May God grant this in our homes!

Credits: arashi_on, plueonigiri @ lj (Thanks!)

[Via http://yui7.wordpress.com]

Life in Technicolor

 

Peter Jackson, the visionary director behind the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “King Kong” is a master of taking the imaginary into reality. Jackson was able to spend a few minutes to explain the inner workings of his genius

Valley Star: So my question is, a kind of a behemoth like “Lord of the Rings,” has its own challenges for adaptation. So what sort of challenges or struggles presented themselves in adapting this novel to film?
Peter Jackson: Well, one of the things that I’m beginning to learn, because you know I’m not hugely experienced at doing this, that – and you’re learning all the time. Like every time you make a movie, it’s going to film school each – and you go to class at film school every day.

But I’m realizing that when you adapt a book, you can only really put half the book into the film. So you know and average-length book, like The Lovely Bones, it would be a four- or five-hour-long movie if we were to include all of the characters that Alice wrote about, and all the subplots that she wrote about.

So, one of the challenges that we’re discovering now is that, when you’re adapting, you know you’ve got to – you’ve got to realize that you’re only going to get half the book into the movie, and you’ve got to start making decisions about what the most important aspects of the book are. And you quickly realize that you – you know you have those two or three main characters, and whereas an author of a book can write subplots, they can have secondary characters, and they can delve into other storylines that aren’t connected to the main story, and it works very well in a novel. It doesn’t work so well in a film. And so you tend to focus on just two or three main characters and really stick to the central plotline of a film.

So, it’s making those decisions. And it’s you know – and it’s seeing passages of the book that you really liked, that you assumed you’d put into the movie, but you suddenly haven’t got time for them. And it’s having to say goodbye to characters and to scenes that you were looking forward to doing. But when you start writing the script, you realize that there’s no room for it.

VS: This is your fifth big-budget film and your fifth adaptation. What attracts you to bringing other people’s visions alive and stories alive? And in the future, do you see yourself working with more original materials?
PJ: Well, I’m happy to do either. I’m happy to do – well, I mean, we’re not really setting out to find novels to adapt. But you know what’s interesting, when you do read a book, and I read novels like anyone else, just for recreation and for fun, is that I often start imagining a movie in my head.

So as I’m – and I’m sure most people do this. As you read a well-written book, you start imagining what these people look like, and you imagine the locations and the action. And before too long, you’ve got this little movie playing in your head.And then it doesn’t take much for me to get excited about the little movie that’s being inspired by the words in the book. At – you know to want to think seriously about the idea of putting that little movie in my head onto film and showing it to other people, which is ultimately what we end up doing.

So, I guess novels have a – have a tendency to do that with me, whereas an original idea is a whole different thing. Because an original idea, you’re sort of either waiting for a bit of inspiration to pop into your head, or you’re sitting down in front of a blank sort of paper, thinking now, what do I really want to make a film about, and let me think of some ideas.

And that’s actually harder, I think, I would be fair to say that, unless you – unless you’ve got an incredibly inspired idea for something that’s no one ever seen before, it’s difficult to come up with fresh and original and new you know original ideas. Novels at least have a head start.

So I found them a bit easier to make, because half the work is done for you at the beginning. But I don’t really have a plan. I don’t have a plan to do one or the other. It’s – I just follow my nose.

I literally don’t know what we’re going to be doing in two or three years, you know. I will just wait and see. It’s part of the fun of being a filmmaker like this, is that it’s pointless following a big, grand plan. You just go from one film to the next and wait a

VS: I am a big fan, and your films often focus on a blend between reality and fantasy. So I was wondering, how do you balance the two realms artistically in your films?
PJ: Well, you do – within a movie, you follow what you think the movie needs. And so, The Lovely Bones was a particularly interesting, because it’s – it is a very fascinating mix of reality and fantasy.

I guess, because the fantasy segments referring to the afterlife, the sequences with Susie, because you know one of the attractive things about The Lovely Bones is the – is it’s an opportunity for me to make a movie, which says things about what happens to our soul after we die. And that’s obviously a question that we all wonder about.

And so, you know it’s on the – it’s in the back of everybody’s mind. And, especially if you lose people who are close to you, you wonder what’s happened to them, and are they still around, and can they see you and hear you? All those sort of questions are fascinating questions. And they’re emotional questions.

And it’s that stuff that the movie really gets into. And so, you know even calling it fantasy, I guess is not really true, because we try to you know – we try to present a case of, this could be what happens to you, and possibly, after you – after you leave your body, your soul divides and lives on.

And so the movie is a – it was fascinating in the sense that there’s a reality to the film, which is Susie’s parents and her sister and her murderer. There’s a storyline that’s about them, you know and they live a perfectly real life, and continue to do so. There’s nothing at all fantastic about that storyline, and in fact, we you know we tried to make that as real as we possibly could.

And in the other half of the movie is, we’re following Susie’s point of view. And her point of view is being told you know from the point of view of her – of her soul, which is living on after she dies. And how she reacts to that, and how she wants to see her killer punished, and is it really – is punishment what she – what she wants? Is punishment what she should be after? You know, we’ve asked those sorts of interesting questions.

And you know it’s not a ghost movie. So she doesn’t operate on the rules that you see in normal ghost movies. She can’t make doors slam, and she can’t sort of you know – she can’t do any harm to anybody, yet she wants to try to get the guy who killer her to court, because he’s getting away with it.

And so, it was a fascinating mixture of the two. And that was one of the, I guess, the challenges of the film is to be – is to be stepping in and out of both of those points of view, the real and the fantastic.

And the balance of it, I – you know, you’ll have to see for yourself when you see the movie if we succeeded with the balance. That is the trick, though, getting that balance right, so that it’s not – it just is a sort of a you know – keeping the story told, keeping the momentum going, making sure that it’s delicate, not heavy-handed. That was – all of that was the challenge of making this particular film.

[Via http://underthehardtop.wordpress.com]

Cheryl Coles Night In.

Check out what I think is Rihanna’s best Live performance of Russian Roulette, she sang it on Cheryl Coles Night In show a one off show done by the English singer. Rihanna performed amazingly, it was incredible every time she sings live she seems to get better & better! Her vocals & outfit was amazing, check her shoes out how could she focus on singing, looking & walking perfectly?! She is an amazing artist, in this performance you can really see the emotion in her eyes and the way she sings the song, amazing.

Cheryls show also had live performance from herself, Snow Patrol and Will.I.Am. The show seemed to be really good although I haven’t seen it all. Below you can check the performances out from Cheryl herself & Will.I.Am also Snow Patrol.

[Via http://haygeee.wordpress.com]